LocalHarvest & CSAs

I found this awhile ago and thought it was pretty cool. It gives you the location of farms, farmer's markets, and community supported agriculture (CSA) throughout the US among other things. It provides a way to find healthy and environmentally friendly food.

One thing that I've been interested to try out is the CSA. If we participate in it, we pay X amount of money, and the farm/s will package a box of fresh organic groceries every week depending on what's available at the time. The box will either be delivered or can be picked up at a certain time weekly or bimonthly.

I have calculated it and figured that it can be fairly comparable to buying a week's worth of fruits and vegetables on my own. For example, according to this CSA at Garden of Eden, it costs $34.75/wk for a box for 2-3 people, $41/wk for a box for 4-5 people. So, if anyone's interested, we could try it out with the bigger box for around $20/wk/2 person, which is what I'm spending on groceries anyway.

Anyone interested?

Did I mention my new goal? I am going to buy whatever is on sale and try it in a new recipe.

So today I'm going to do an experiment. Two actually. I just got some incredibly sweet and delicious raspberries. I barely had the self control to save three of them, which I plan to plant and see what happens. Also, last weekend in San Francisco, I had some pruning plums, which I only found once at the grocery store here, and are a lot more flavorful than your typical plum. Of course, I saved the pits and plan to plant those. I know fruit trees are supposed to be grafted, but I figure there is nothing to be lost in trying.

Announcement

I think this is very relevant to our long-term goal here: There is a xeriscaping class at the Point Loma Walter Andersen on August 1st at 9am. We should totally go and ask questions.

HOWTO: Build A Milk Crate Toilet Composter

Ugg. How normal people feel about compost heaps is how I feel about "humanure." Shudders. Although...
I bet with a slick enough marketing campaign you could market 'humanure' (although it needs a better name, like Closed Loop Plant Food - of the body for the ground) for a premium at whole foods. Or better yet, you could just get a bunch of poor people to crap in 'ecofriendly biodegradable whicker carry alls' and have a delivery service for rich, guilty people to fertilize their gardens with. Or rather, for their gardeners to deal with. Or they could just cut out the middle man, and just make sure their gardeners stop using the indoor plumbing... and let nature take its course.
Hehe, now I can't stop thinking of funny marketing names for human excrement:
Miracle Gross
Chocolate Nitrogen
Recycled Food
Chamber Pot brand Fertilizer
This Came From Someone's Butt! (tm)

 

 

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HOWTO: Build A Milk Crate Toilet Composter

via Boing Boing Gadgets by Steven Leckart on 7/21/09

The folks at Homegrown Evolution, authors of The Urban Homestead, put together a great guide for creating one of these "humanure" Johns out of a five-gallon bucket, milk crate, seat, cable ties, and some scrap wood.

Assembly is straightforward and requires only basic tools, including a jigsaw or keyhole saw.

If you're going to try preparing poop-manure, be sure to read up beforehand.

If you're not interested in compost, this badboy could also make a fine emergency toilet.

Previously:

• NatureMill PRO Indoor Composter
• Doggie Dooley Turns Pet Waste into Lawn Food
• How to make a minpin poop compost bin

 

 

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Water Resistant Planting

I have come across a dilemma. Grass. Having had a lawn of my own for around 6 months, I have seen first hand that lawns are as evil as environmentalists crack them out to be. It was doing great at first, but unbeknown to me, it was being automatically watered 7 minutes every single night of the week. Now it's being watered once a week for 20 minutes and looks terrible. I could go on a long rant about how horrible it is to waste all this water but I won't. I looking for a solution and having a hard time doing it. As dreadful as grass is, I'm having a hard time finding a replacement. Little compared with grass for its "stompability." Ice plant can be gorgeous but would be crushed by even the most dainty of feet. So far dymondia margaretae seems fairly promising. Here is a link to an article:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://freshdirt.sunset.com/images/2008/06/11/dymondia_04.jpg&imgrefurl=http://freshdirt.sunset.com/2008/06/dymondia-margar.html&usg=__pCqDZr_Me1FgKc2R3OigoKy6xUc=&h=308&w=465&sz=34&hl=en&start=13&tbnid=VxDK_OXB3AqlJM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddymondia%2Bmargaretae%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Wow; that was a lot longer than I was expecting! Anyway, I'm seriously considering this ground cover, but will have to seed it rather than plant it as I saw it at a nursery for around $15 for an 18"x18" box. That would add up quite quickly! Tiles/hardscape with planters and mini gardens also seems promising, yet potentially quite expensive...

Year 1 update 1

New sugarbaby watermelon sprouts at day 8...I think. Will be planting them not this weekend, but the next.


Waltham butternut squashes at day 16 or so with their first true leaves! Will be planting them this weekend. I think I planted one of them too deep. I don't know.


I am also conducting an experiment on the roma tomatoes. Since romas are determinates, there is conflicting information on whether to prune or not. So, for three of them, I got rid of all side branches below the first flowers; the others I have left alone. Supposedly, that will strengthen the main stem. And we'll see how that goes.

Hyperlocavore Creates Yardsharing Connections [Garden]

Not saying we'd want to be part of this, I think we probably have enough a good yard/people ratio as it stands without having to invite a bunch of hippies... still seems like a nifty project though and maybe we can meet people we can swipe sprouts from (hehehe).

 

 

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Hyperlocavore Creates Yard-Sharing Connections [Garden]

via Lifehacker by Erin Schwendemann on 7/14/09

If you'd love to grow fresh veggies but live in an apartment with no yard or you're just too busy to maintain a garden of your own, web site Hyperlocavore connects you with an active yard-sharing community.

By allowing members to post classifieds for land, Hyperlocavore gives people who wouldn't normally have access to such amenities the ability to enjoy gardening and growing their own food.

Once you've become a pea (member), you can then create a pod (group) for an existing yard share, for requesting yard/garden partners, or for announcing you have a yard to share. If you're concerned about privacy, you can set up groups to use a moderated membership system; if not, you can allow anyone to join.

When your group is created, the next step is getting people together and gardening. If you need help with what works best in yard sharing, hit up their forums for yard-sharing best practices—lots of information on setting up and starting a local growing community.

Do you have any experience with yard sharing? Tell us what works and what doesn't in the comments.

Hyperlocavore

 

 

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